Rock Hall Boss Talks Judas Priest, Dolly Parton Inductions

Keavin Wiggins | 05-07-2022

Induction promo

Greg Harris, the CEO of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, spoke with Audacy's Taryn Daly about the class of 2022 inductees, including Judas Priest, Dolly Parton and Eminem. We were sent the following excerpts:

Initial reaction to inductee announcement: "It's been fantastic. The outpouring of love for these artists that were inducted this year is just amazing...A few of these artists that were selected this year, you know fans have been lobbying for awhile, and they've gone over the top, so it's a great week."

On Judas Priest's induction, having metal in the HOF: "I did speak with Rob (Halford) the eve of the announcement, and he was so gracious and so excited. And he thought about the artists that impacted him when he was young. And he was talking about Little Richard and Chuck Berry and sort of the foundational pieces of rock and roll (that) has made him who he is today..."

On Dolly Parton's induction: "It's really great that she came to understand that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is a much broader universe, that we come from R&B and country, and people like Hank Williams and bluegrass great Bill Monroe and Johnny Cash are all in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. And there's plenty of songwriters in, and Dolly is all of that, and more. We love her humility (when) she was first holding back. And then she embraced it...It's been a great journey and a chance for us for the world to better understand what we're about. It doesn't mean that we're not in favor of hard rock -- we're in favor of that too. We're in favor of new wave, we're in favor of punk rock, we're in favor of all of it."

On Eminem's induction: "For a lot of years people asked about hip hop. He's the 10th artist to be sort of categorized that way. But (if) you listen to his music, it is as hard hitting and straight ahead as any metal song...It's a chest punch with a message and with a power and with a rhythm..." Check out the full interview here.